Because of our great experience on the Breeze I was hoping for a little bit better experience than what we got. The ship is tired, especially at the outside areas, and is ready for a dry dock next year. The food in the main dining room was fabulous and the service was the absolute best! I’ll stick to newer ships because I realize now how important that is to me.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
A bit disorganized as we all funneled into one line but once through security we were on the ship. Took about 35 mins.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Ricardo in the main dining room was excellent and helped me each evening pick out a gluten free option for my dinner the following night. We thought the food in the MDR exceeded our expectations. However, the Lido was a huge disappointment. They need to do a better job at forming the lines as they were sooo long at each station. We only ate there once for breakfast and never on a sea day.
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
We enjoyed the hot tub on deck 5. Recommend getting there early before the crowds. We played mini golf (needs repairs for curled carpet and chipped paint), and bean bag toss. Enjoyed the ropes course as it was pretty challenging. I gave this a 3 star because visual repairs need to be done. Plus, the crew at the ropes course was not very excited to be there. This was a stark contrast to all the super friendly servers throughout the ship.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
I was very disappointed at the shows. Being our 6th cruise, the shows were the worst of them all. We were on the Breeze 5 years ago and saw acrobats and magicians, this was strictly musicals which were not much better than college theater. For years I bragged up the entertainment on the Breeze at how family friendly it was but these shows on the Magic were highly sexualized and had off-key singers. Huge bummer.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Everyone in the service department was smiling and accommodating. I witnessed a drunk couple giving a hard time to the one making pizzas and he just smiled through their stupidity.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
I like this design and layout. Easy to get to everything and avoid the smoky casino by walking outside on deck 5. The entire ship was clean but tired. An easy fix and sprucing up would be to replace the grungy cushions on the serenity deck and deck 11. I didn’t want to even sit on them with out a towel. But the staff was always at alert to clean up after people leave their dishes behind and doing so with a smile.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We always do interior rooms for dark sleeping and cost savings! We chose the forward part of deck 8 and it was nice and quiet.
Ship tip
From now on I will choose newer ships or ones that are fresh from dry dock.
We rented a golf cart through Omar to see the island. 6pax for $120. We were amazed at how desolate the island was. It seems that everyone works at the cruise port because we hardly saw anyone outside or on the streets. The light house was underwhelming but glad we saw it. It was $3 per person to get on the grounds...happy to help the locals out. The cruise port was so overcrowded with 2 ships there. This was our third time there and our least favorite stop because of the crowds.
We loved our tour with Amber Cove Adventures that took us up to the top of the mountain to see a botanical garden, Christ the Redeemer statue, with a tram ride down. Views were amazing! Excellent tour!
Busy port but accessible to shopping and beach if you just want to walk around. We took a 2-3 hour tour through Tyrone’s to see the Queens Steps, fort, the Atlantis, a rum and chocolate shop. We’ve been here 3 times but traveling companions hadn’t been before.
A bit confusing as the port suddenly got closed at no fault of Carnival but we were able to depart early for a 10:20 flight with out any further problems.
Well written review. Thanks for sharing your experience. Years ago Carnival had Las Vegas style productions with live bands and lots of special effects. Sadly, they have cut back, but if that’s the price to pay for keeping our fares reasonable, then I am okay with it!
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